I think if someone could've, they would've answered you by now, so I'd say it's time to start researching books yourself and digging around the net on your own. It's a fairly obscure vehicle without a lot of imagery to support details about it though so pickin's will be slim.

Yeah I can't see it being much of a "weapon" of war... More akin to a Dodge Troop Truck from World War 2... Sure it might have an MG mounted in the bed for a little supression fire if needed but don't let it fool you, it's just to move troops and nothing more. The AT-OT there looks to be a similar design with similar purposes... couple guns for perhaps a little anti-personnel work if it should need to do so, but otherwise it's just getting guys from point A to point B and nothing more, and rows of them can be seen burning alongside roads to major battles at any given point.

It looks like it's based on an AT-TE chassis there... I thought I heard somewhere it's not the same though, I dunno.

Another good example of a similar vehicle that looks meaner than it is, are halftracks. In WW2 the U.S. halftrack maybe looked mean, but unless it had something big strapped on its back it wasn't a death dealer... Same with the German halftracks and they had assloads of variants too, some with mean teeth added to them, but which ultimately were susceptible to anti-armor weapons used by infantry and easily taken out... Good for a little recon and getting some mechanized infantry up alongside the real armor, but beyond that they were metal coffins if you thought you were going to be spearheading attacks in halftracks.

Old subject sorry, but after reading this a question kind of popped in my head. Why don't land vehicles have energy sheilds. If something as small as a driodeka can have sheilds, and surely this AT-OT could use something if only a partial for the roof.

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Some do, and some do not... It depends on the EU you're looking into too.

The Alliance, like it's starfighter units, utilize shielding a bit more than the Empire tries to. The Alliance tends to use it on the more vulnerable vehicles like light hover tanks for instance, which are good anti-personnel, anti-light armor, and anti-air units. A nice multi-role piece of armor, but easy prey for AT-ST's or other armor that can pack a punch.

Other more heavily armored vehicles dont' necessarilly get that plus to them though.

I'd think some of the deciding factors would be, too, that armor for protection is cheaper and easier to utilize on land-based vehicles without impacting the vehicle's mobility, whereas on Starfighters armor directly impacts the craft's speed, maneuverability, etc. At least I'd think that would be a more pressing factor for the speeders and fighters than for the ground armor.

There are land-based shielded vehicles though, at least in EU... Lots of them actually, and even craft like AT-ST and such are able to be outfitted with shields, if needed.

Another interesting thing about land vehicles are the differences between tracked, walker, and reulsorcraft, and how each one has different tactical advantages. Repulsorcraft can't penetrade heavy defensive shields around bases, but can traverse rivers, streams, lava flows, and such. Walkers have advantages in a variety of terrain that tracked vehicles cannot traverse. Tracked vehicles have greater stability and thus a greater ability to add a wider variety of weaponry, etc.

I think land-based combat in Star Wars is full of unique tactical situations and questions.

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BTW on the issue of the AT-OT, I really don't think the design is that bad... To me, I look at it as nothing more than a transport though. It's not an assault vehicle per se, as much as it's like a 2.5 ton troop truck from WW2. It's there to move men and equipment to the front, maybe even acting as the land equivalent of a Higgins boat for major assaults where mass infantry is needed moved quickly alongside the heavy guns like AT-TE's and such.

Not a bad design for what it's intended for, it's just not a craft your'e going to rely on to take heavily defended positions with of course.

Thanks for the info Jesse, and I totally agree with the it is what it is-a transport. But still if you're drumming along on that thing to the front or back to base or whatever and BAM! your dead because of sniper fire kind of sucks. All it would've taken is a couple small sheild generators along the edge to have deflected the shot. As we can see on the destroyer driods it's not that their sheilds are so powerful, but they are strong enough to deflect small are fire. Even the little lava surf boards that Obi & Ani are on in Ep3 have some sort of sheilding going on there. Sorry I know it's just a movie, just trying to think real world about it.

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Well like i siad there are some shielded land vehicles at least in the EU... And shielding can be adapted to most land vehicles, at least in EU (again)... Maybe the AT-OT does have shields? EU maybe didn't pick up on that though... I dont' know of EU entries for that walker model and don't recall it surfacing in EU at all except perhaps as a background piece in a scene. No details.

It could very well have shields though? Nobody's said it doesn't anyway so I'd go with that if it makes more sense. Tactically speaking though, it's still not a bad design as it's not a frontline truck. It's like a halftrack, or a troop truck... Hell it's like a canvas top humvee even, or whatnot. Just not meant to be in the line of fire, ever... But if it has shields it might help. Still the open top with shields is weird from a design perspective, but nothing says that's not the case either.

It looks like it's based on an AT-TE chassis there... I thought I heard somewhere it's not the same though, I dunno.

It isn't the same at all. Quite similar in shape though. TE's have a three pairs of legs, this has four. Also, the "head"/cockpit is not wedged into the body of the vehicle the way the AT-TE has it. One last thing, the AT-TE's got all of the top hinges of each leg covored, but all of these are exposed.

I would not call it a bad design on a normal flat battlefeild (i.e. Geinosis), where there are few places snipers can hide and shoot soldiers on board. However, I wouldn't find it so smart to use it on Felucia. Loads of places for snipers to hide and shoot at it.

As Jesse said, this is for transporting. However we only see a few troops on top, and this thing is awfully big. I wouldn't be surprised if the AT-OT has a troop-hold below the open deck.